ali soufan was one of the fbi's secret weapons in its fight against al qaeda. a lebanese-american, fluent in arabic, he interrogated al qaeda prisoners at secret locations all over the world. soufan was known for his ability to outwit terrorists. and he's telling his story in a new book, "the black banners," parts of which have been blacked out because the cia says they contain classified information. on the day of the september 11 attacks, ali soufan was thousands of miles away from ground zero, but in a unique position to help find those responsible. what was your first thought? >> ali soufan: it was al qaeda. absolutely, i had no doubt in my mind. i had no doubt in my mind. two planes at the same time, hitting the world trade center. >> logan: on 9/11, fbi agent ali soufan was in yemen, where his new york-based team had been investigating the deadly al qaeda attack a year earlier on the u.s.s. "cole." soufan and his team were preparing to fly back to new york when fbi headquarters ordered him and his partner to stay put. and at this point, every fiber of your

ali soufan joining us. when you say they knew, they knew.lking about the cia. >> not as an agency. some people in the agency knew that nawaf hazumi were in the united states. we were looking to people connected to the u.s. assault for a few months. for about more than a year in yemen. and here are two people who we know from our investigation have met with the person who facilitated the attack and his job was to videotape the operation. and one of the suicide bombers in southeast asia. and we put at least three requests for information, not thinking then they knew. we're investigating, we're getting information. we share the information with everyone. and hoping that any intelligence agency, law enforcement, you know, anybody who has some information to share it with us because we're investigating the death of 17 of our heroic sailors who perished on october 12th of 2000 on the "uss cole" in yemen. nobody told us anything until ten years to the day, december 12th. ten years to the day. i still don't know the reason why the information was be

ali soufan was chasing the attack and bin laden when september 11th happened. within a week of 9/11 he was face to face with the al qaeda custody anywhere, interrogating bin laden's confidant in prison. that produced america's confirmation that al qaeda and bin laden were behind the 9/11 attack. within six months soufan was face to face with zabida. when you get to the part about that interrogation, in ali soufan's book "black banners" it starts to look like this. writing for the first few pages. you start to see a few more redactions. then you get page after page of redacted text. there's something in here that somebody still doesn't want you to know. let me introduce you now to ali soufan to explain why the book is called "the black banners: the inside story of 9/11 and the war against al qaeda." i know you could be anywhere for your f l >> thank you for having me. it's a pleasure. >> let me start with the specific and broaden out. who's responsible for the redactions in your book? >> from the agency, the cia. the book was approved by the fbi. when we finishe

that's very significant. >> smith: ali soufan says that not one piece of actionable intelligence was produced by the application of enhanced interrogation techniques. >> yes, well... i mean no disrespect to mr. soufan, but there was a lot of information derived-- from k.s.m., from abu zubaydah, from the other detainees who were subjected to these techniques. again, whether that intelligence could've been derived without these techniques, i do not know. and to this day, i think it's unknowable. i believe strongly that that would not have happened, because we're talking about the most... the most hardened, the most determined, and the most knowledgeable of the al qaeda leaders. i simply can't accept that they would have succumbed to a normal question-and-answer period to provide the information they provided. >> smith: discouraged by all that he had seen, soufan would leave the fbi in 2005. in 2009, he decided to speak out. >> from my experience, i strongly believe that it is a mistake to use what has become known as enhanced interrogation techniques. >> smith: he appeared, his identity

ali soufan, how did you joined the fbi? i wasn't one of these guys who always dreamed of being an fbi agent for working with the government. when somebody in college suggested that, and administrator in my university suggested that, i thought it is a silly idea. it is like telling me to work in a circus or something. but i thought it was a big challenge. a lot of people in college especially my fraternity started to make bets if i can make it through the process of being an fbi agent. i thought that was interesting. by the time i graduated from graduate school i finished my graduate work, the fbi offered me a job and ended up in virginia in the new agent club. >> how many years did you serve? >> guest: i served eight or nine years. >> host: you were born in beirut. how did you get to the united states? >> guest: my family immigrated with the war in lebanon and everything so i grew up in pennsylvania and went to school in pennsylvania. my first real job after graduate school was fbi stationed in new york. i moved to new york

. >> ali soufan was an essential weapon in the fbi's war on terror. >> he said, "i want the torture tove you anything you want to hear." >> now he is speaking out to correspondent martin smith. >> you say it's not just mistakes made, it's lies told, it's cover-ups. >> absolutely. >> a rare interview and a telling history from before 9/11 to today. >> no 9/11? >> the world would be very different. >> "the interrogator." >> this report continues online, with more on this administration's expansion of top secret america, things we still don't know-- how many secret programs and how effective are they? read an excerpt from the reporter's new book... >> okay. >> ...plus more of our exclusive interview with former top cia lawyer john rizzo... >> they were going to be just as tough. >> ...and other key officials. >> ...huge new bureaucracy. >> follow frontline on facebook and twitter, or join the discussion at pbs.org. >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major funding is provided b

and tonight's "frontline" features an extended conversation with ali soufan, an f.b.i. interrogator, who says c.i.a. enhanced interrogation techniques are ineffective, and that the agency's failure to share information with him altered his investigation of 9/11. "frontline's" martin smith conducted the interview. here's an excerpt. >> you're looking at this. you're seeing al midar with halad and you're told in the report that al midar was in flight 77 that crashed into the pentagon. >> yes. >> how did you react? >> i basically ran to the bathroom and puked. >> what if that information had been shared, how would it have played out? >> oh, my god. this is a huge "if." this is a huge "if." i think the world would be very different today. i'm convinced. no 9/11. the world would be very different. >> sreenivasan: "frontline" airs on most pbs stations later this evening. check your local listings for the time. all that and more is on our web site, nweshour.pbs.org. judy? >> ifill: and again, to our honor roll of american service >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonigh

ali soufan for coming on "hardball," very much.e black banners," thanks very much. >>> >>> up next, today in the united nations, the palestinians went ahead with their bid for sovereignty for full nationhood over u.s. and israeli objections and submitted their application as a u.n. member state. we'll talk to the israeli ambassador about what the united states should be doing here, what israel's trying to do. this is "hardball" only on msnbc. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] something unexpected to the world of multigrain... taste. ♪ delicious pringles multigrain. with a variety of flavors, multigrain pops with pringles. >>> former president bill clinton and house speaker john boehner making good on their promise to finish that flight 93 memorial up in shanksville, pennsylvania. clinton, boehner, and former president george w. bush, who were all there that day have released a public service announcement to raise funds to complete that memorial. that memorial still needs to raise $10 million to complete it. if you want to donate, just go

ali soufan as well.black banners the inside story of 9/11 and the war against al qaeda." thanks again. >> thank you very much. >> we'll be back with more "morning joe" ♪ ♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution, comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. [ female announcer ] improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula improves skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] only from aveeno. ♪ [ sighs ] [ bird chirps ] [ bird squawks ] ♪ [ bird screeching ] ♪ [ elevator bell dings ] [ sighs ] how mad is she? she kicked me out. but i took the best stuff. i'll get the wrench. ♪ [ male announcer ] kohler's tresham collection. life. with a twist. ♪ [ kid ] dad? who is honus...wagner? no idea. let me see that. that's a honus wagner

. >> ali soufan was an essential weapon in the fbi's war on terror. >> he said, "i want the torture toorrespondent martin smith. >> you say it's not just mistakes made, it's lies told, it's cover-ups. >> absolutely. >> a rare interview and a telling history from before 9/11 to today. >> no 9/11? >> the world would be very different. >> "the interrogator." >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major funding is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. and by reva and david logan. committed to investigative journalism as the guardian of the public interest. additional funding is provided by the park foundation. dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. and by the frontline journalism fund, supporting investigative reporting and enterprise journalism. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org for more on this and other frontline programs, visit our website at pbs

former arrived fbi interrogators ali soufan was interviewed next and talked about his book the black banners and answered questions. then from the history and biography tent candice miller discussed her book the destiny of the republic with festival attendees. >>> now joining us on the booktv said is jennifer gavankar of the project manager of the national book festival. if you could come start by giving us the facts and figures about the national book festival, how many authors, how many people, what kind of events. >> thank you very much for having me, peter. we expect to have 111 authors on the ground over the next two days. yes, that today's and we are excited about going to two days. people have been asking us to do this for years and we feel we can respond. we are pleased to be doing this. we hope to have as many people as we have as last year which was 150,000 visitors, and we will have our usual six pavilions, the familiar ones everybody knows, plus we've added three new pavilions on day to which will be graphic novels, state poet laureate and the pavilion we call the cutting